


Five Things that Never Happened to Bruce Wayne

by havisham



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Averted!, Detectives, Gen, Parent Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-14
Updated: 2011-12-14
Packaged: 2017-10-27 08:40:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/293842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Waynes take a taxi home. It's strange, but they would have otherwise chosen to walk down a scary, darkened alley-way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Things that Never Happened to Bruce Wayne

**I.**

She tugs his hand, her silk gloved fingers slipping out his small grasp. She sighs as he snuggles closer, getting underfoot. “Bruce, baby, you’re making it hard to walk.”

Bruce pulls away then, suddenly indignant, and shouts, “I am _not_ a baby!”

“Oh, no he’s not. He’s the Green Lantern, aren’t you Bruce! Look, he can fly!”

Thomas grabs the boy tosses him up, and the boy floats for a half a breath before falling back into his father’s arms.

Giggling, the boy gasps, “Again, again!”

Bruce is small for his age, but Thomas tells Martha that they needn’t worry about it. “He has an heroic frame, like all the Wayne men,” he says, patting his own chest with considerable satisfaction and then Martha pulls a face, amused by his antics. (Thomas can lighten up, when the situation calls for it.) 

Suddenly breathless, she pauses and touches her string of pearls. (A Christmas present from the Wayne men.) Thomas and Bruce come behind her, and Bruce pipes up, “What’s wrong, Mom?”

As if through a fog, she says, “Let’s take a taxi tonight.”

Thomas frowns, “Martha, we could easily take the subway. In fact, Bruce ought to learn to mix with all sorts of people and public transportation is the best way --”

He is interrupted by a sharp squeal of tires. A yellow cab with black checks stops in front of Martha. Without another word, she gets in. Bruce scrabbles up behind her. Thomas hesitates, wondering if he should argue, but then slides in. _Pick your battles_.

“Where to, boss?”  
“The Palisades, please.”

As they pull away, there’s a scream and two shots ring out into the still night.

Bruce buries his head in his mother’s lap. Her gloves gone, she strokes his dark hair. Her pearls wink in the dimness. She whispers, “It’s all right, baby. We’re all right.”

**II.**

Alfred looks at dead bat and shards of glass. With barely suppressed sigh, he says, “I suppose it’s well that you have learned to close windows at night, Master Bruce.”

**III.**

Heirs to vast, multi-million dollar fortunes do _not_ become private-eyes.

However, heirs to vast fortunes are rarely stopped from doing anything they would like to do.

(Martha sighs and kneads her temples. “You’ve watched too many film noirs, Bruce.” At least, Thomas avers, their son has made an exciting career choice. “Medicine is unexciting?” says Martha, dryly. “Ask the Elliot boy,” says Thomas vaguely. Bruce rolls his eyes. He hasn’t spoken to Tommy in years.)

Soon, Bruce finds his day-job morph into a night-job. He spends more time than he ought to on rooftops and alleyways of Gotham. And yes, it’s partly a _rich boy slumming it_ thing that Selina accuses him doing.... (Although _he’d_ never think of it like that.)

But there’s a rumor going around about a new vigilante in town. All the criminals are terrified of her. (If? If she exists? Huntress, they call her, for obvious reasons. There's a tragic story in there somewhere, but then again, there always is with people like that.)

And this town --  _his town,_ though the proprietary feelings he has for it could, perhaps, be mistaken--  keeps getting _weirder and weirder_. Unbelievable stories start cropping up. The stuff coming out of the DA's office (Harvey tells him, "Just between the two of us, you understand, Bruce?") is enough to raise the hairs on the back of anyone’s neck.

(The police doesn't deal with amateurs, even talented ones, explains the inspector. A nice man, that Jim Gordon. His career's stalled, but Gotham is no place for honest cops.)

Bruce feels like there’s something missing, there’s something he _needs to do_ , something he _ought to do_.

So, Bruce waits in the dark. He watches and learns.

**IV.**

Parents die, of course. 

Thomas and Martha are killed while vacationing in Europe, with a dozen other tourists in a crowded plaza in Florence. They are sixty and fifty-eight, respectively. They were far too young to die, and Bruce felt far too young to have lost them. They are victims of a terrorist attack that seemingly has no motive, no goal.

Bruce cancels his own travels abroad -- stops seeing this fascinating -- really, _bewitching_ girl who seems to know the jig is up before he does, and disappears completely before he can even break it to her gently. Their hotel room goes unpaid. 

Months of intense Investigation leads Bruce to a shadowy organization responsible for their deaths... And to it even more shadowy leader, the Demon’s Head.

(Bruce swears one day to bring the man to justice. One day, he will.)

**V.**

The boy came as a surprise.

Dick, an acrobat with sweet smile tumbles into his life and it’s like someone’s turned on a switch. Dick brings light back. Then there’s Jason, who’s a fighter and always angry -- at first, and then only very often. He doesn't believe in affection, but he needs it all the same. Jason tries to steal Bruce’s tires, but in the end Bruce steals him.

(That sounds odd, but that's -- _well, that's how it goes_.)

Dick grows up, leaves, and comes back. He brings Barbara Gordon back with him, arms linked together. (They meet in New York and discover that they share the same hometown. Funny how things work out like that.)

Jason skips town before his sixteenth birthday. He'll be back, Bruce has faith and good tracking system.

(Jason knows only half of it. Well, three-quarters of it. _Tops_.)

Tim sneaks in and stays.

(He's a good detective already. Might grow up to be the best.)

Steph follows Tim.

(Bruce likes her more than he lets on. Somehow she knows anyway.)

Cassandra just turns up one day, without a word.

But it’s not difficult to understand what she wants.

(What they all want.)

Bruce Wayne, having lost his family forever, finds another one has formed around him, and it holds him tight.

  



End file.
